A mechanical health monitoring system for rotating machinery has two primary objectives. One primary objective is issuing an advance warning of an impending failure. The other primary objective is preventing mission aborts and costly repairs due to primary and secondary damage. The advance warning period mentioned in the first objective can be extended by either detecting damage early and with high confidence or by delaying the end of life as late as possible. Therefore what is needed is automated continuous monitoring of the mechanical health of the rotating equipment to detect a damage as early as possible to allow enough time to schedule a repair.